CHAPTER Y. 



PHYSICAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE MULE. 



1 NOW propose to say something on the mule's limbs 

 and feet. It will be observed that the mule has a 

 jack's leg from the knee down, and in this part of 

 the leg he is weak ; and with these he frequently has 

 to carry a horse's body. It stands to reason, then, that 

 if you feed him until he gets two or three hundred 

 pounds of extra flesh on him, as many persons do, he 

 will break down for want of leg-strength. Indeed, the 

 mule is weakest where the horse is strongest. His feet, 

 too, are a singular formation, differing very materially 

 from those of the horse. The mule's feet grow very 

 slow, and the grain or pores of the hoof are much 

 closer and harder than those of the horse. It is not so 

 liable, however, to break or crumble. And yet they 

 are not so well adapted for work on macadamized or 

 stony roads, and the more flesh you put on his body, 

 after a reasonable weight, the more you add to the 

 means of his destruction. 



Observe, for instance, a farmer's mule, or a poor 

 man's mule working in the city. These persons, with 

 rare exceptions, feed their mules very little grain, and 

 they are generally in low flesh. And yet tliey last a 



